New world same beginnings (3)

We could have been friends in another timeline but in this, I decided to dodge preemptively to avoid getting slashed by the wolf that launched at me.

Although I now found myself being covered in fleshy mucus and smelt horrendous, it was still preferable to being dead. Many things became irrelevant as I heard the wolf breath full of hate. Yet the second attack did not come immediately.

Instead, the wolf began to sniff at its cubs for a few seconds. It was to no avail as the damage had been done, the cub had sustained too much damage. It might still be alive but nothing could be done to prevent its death.

After the few seconds had passed only a pained whimper could be heard as the wolf seemed to lament the fate of its cub. Unwilling to accept the situation it cried out all of the misery it felt.

What a heartwarming story, but could we continue with our fight? In the end, it is only a cub, so why pretend that it is so important? Sorry for my lack of pity, but should it not save the grieving when it has taken care of me?

Oh, well I am not a heartless bastard, I will wait till it has come to terms with it. It appears to be highly important to the wolf, so I will not rob this emotion from it. I will be the one to put its life to an end regardless.

An eerie silence filled this space as the wolf tried to process what lied before it. The answer had not changed the second it had arrived here, but yet it had not moved from the spot for quite some time now.

It was only a matter of time until all the grief and sadness turned into bottomless anger directed at me, the one responsible for all of this. This would be the moment when the battle would finally begin.

Running away had never been an option for me, firstly it would have been pointless to run away without even being able to see where I would run to. Keeping my balance was hard enough without it and secondly, I will never run away from a battle I can not lose.

Once it loses control over its emotions the outcome of the battle is predetermined. It is very predictable how it is going to act. If the only course of action is to try and rip me apart, then it should not be any other way.

After it finally had stopped trying to avoid the inevitable, a deep growl entered my ears. It finally began. I could feel all of its bitter hatred in its cry and its breath was filled to the brim with madness.

I am a bit jealous, my mother would not have cared the tiniest bit if I had died before her very eyes, she would have rejoiced about it. Now come on, I will bring the two of you together again. Your time without it will be brief.

This is my concession to you, for being more human then I could ever be. As if it had heard my thoughts the wolf launched itself onto me without any hesitation whatsoever. Meeting it headfirst was stupid, so I just rolled to the side and waited for a bit.

And mere seconds later yet another attack was directed at me, which I easily managed to avoid as well by jumping away. I had no intention of tiring out the wolf, I would be the one losing a contest of endurance.

It is important for me to know my limits and get accustomed to battling without my eyes. My sense of balance is also a bit messed up. A battle is a good way to hone my senses. Furthermore, it should only drive the wolf more insane as I easily dodge all of its attacks.

From time to time I found myself losing my balance and ending up having to dodge less gracefully, but I had already become one with the stench of the rotten bodies, so I did not care about it at all. Though it might seem dangerous from the outside, I did not have any feeling of worry in my mind.

It would take much more than just losing my sight to be unable to defeat a single wolf. I had been through much worse in my mind, although it might not be the same, my horizon has been broadened nonetheless. The wolf itself was only of minor importance to me

It was assured that I would win, but I did not want to end up injured just because I had become haughty. Step by step I would get better and get used to all of this before I will put an end to this facade.

In the end, this wolf is nothing more than means to an end, a mere stepping stone. The same applies to me, as my purpose is also dictated by others. Our paths cross but its use will end soon. Your time is running out slowly but surely as I dictate your fate.

I could not help but laugh, that was not me. I am not the type of person who can say stuff like that with a straight face. This is a battle and not something highly philosophical. It is not about good versus evil nor is about virtue. It is a fight to the death and nothing more.

Whether it fights to avenge its cub or just fights based on its instincts could not matter less, only one will stand while the other will be left behind. Why is there a need to make it any more complicated than necessary?

It was time for me to go on the offence as the attack frequency had gone up even more. In order to catch a break from jumping around like a madman, it was time to test my strength. This time around I did not back off but engaged the wolf with a fist of mine.

Sadly my fist managed to hit nothing but air, as I failed to gauge the distance correctly, it must have been an embarrassing sight but I had no time to be ashamed as the wolf had already flung itself towards me.

Yet another time it failed to hit me as I did not stand still to wait for the attack to hit its target. I had no intention to test the durability of my body. I did not even know what my body was capable of, so I should avoid harming myself intentionally as much as possible.

Having that as a cause of death would surely haunt me. From all the things to possibly die from, this surely does rank pretty high on the scale of dumb ways to go. I do not want to have such a shitty ending to my story.

I refuse, to die here, I absolutely refuse to die against a wolf in an anti-climatic fashion. May the Gods smite me now, to avoid such an embarrassment. But on a more serious note, hitting my target was harder to accomplish when I had initially expected.

Trying to locate it based on the sound it produces is way too hard for me since I only hear them after it already has left the position. I have to aim my attacks at the spot where I think the wolf will have arrived after the sounds have entered my brain.

Which was only possible due to the fact, that the wolf just acted based on instinct and was in a crazed state. Its only aim was to kill me as I stood at my current location, though I could only speculate about its speed and the way it attacked.

Would it jump at me with its sharp claws aimed at my shoulders to push me down and tear my throat with its sharp teeth? Or would it try to for a bite of my feet to limit my mobility first? Normally a wolf hunts in a group and bites its victim numerous times and hunt them to death, till they die of exhaustion.

So how would a single wolf kill its target, when it has lost its mind? It depends on how I evaluate its intelligence, I doubt that it is very interested in tormenting me, so if it were to aim at my legs, it would manage to slow me down and deal considerable damage to my movement and then exploit this weakness to aim at my vitals or deal more injuries until I am worn out.

If it has fought against humans before it should know what to do against them. Using its weight to push me down and then tear out my throat would surely be the most suitable way to kill me in one fell swoop, but I do not think that it would choose that approach.

For the time being, I tried to deduce its preferred method of attacking by listening closely to the sound it produces but I could not discern what it used. There were too many noises that interfered in my attempt to understand its pattern.

The squishy sound when it lands, its breath full of hate, the air it moves through, my steps, my breathing, it is all too much for me to focus on, making it impossible to succeed in my endeavour. Do I need to take a risk, to lock it in a place and injure it?

I would like to avoid trading injury for injury, as a fighting style like that has no future for me. I have seen the limits of that kind of fighting style in my dreams, it is something that I can not afford against strong opponents.

Wait a minute, I might have viewed this problem from the wrong angle, there is no need to predict where the wolf is when it is about to attack me since its target is fixed on me. If it attacks my current location, then all I have to do is take a step back and then throw an attack at my previous location.

However, it could entail a higher risk if I miss my attack, as it would be almost impossible to escape the follow-up attack. But if I use the squishy sound it produces when its paws hit the ground, I can minimize the danger of missing and can launch my attack.

So now I need to decide what kind of attack I launch. My attacks are limited to what my body can do. While It certainly might be something special, I do not want to use a headbutt. Leaving only a punch or a kick as a reasonable option.

While the leg certainly had a higher range it also made me more vulnerable as it was harder to avoid an attack if mine missed. I could use an axe kick, a side-kick, or a normal front kick.

An axe kick would certainly be the most devastating if I manage to hit its head but I am not confident in connecting it.

By pivoting my hips I could land a very power side-kick but it might not be enough to incapacitate the wolf.

Which leaves only a normal frontal kick. By combining its forward momentum with my kick heading directly towards it, it would be a violent clash of forces. Hitting its head would be optimal but regardless of what I hit it is bound to leave behind a lasting injury.

On the other hand, punches might not have the same destructive capabilities but my centre of gravity is also not that affected by them. Having both legs on the ground provides a better stance and can absorb the shock which is produced in a collision.

Though the question remains would it be enough to leave an injury on the wolf. I did not place any high hopes of being able to break bones with my punches. I could aim at its weak spots like the eyes but it was hard to accomplish that without being able to see it.

It was hard to ponder on these issues while evading each attack from the wolf who seemed adamant on ending my life. Especially since I still saw the scale in all of its glory before my eyes. It was quite annoying to only have one thing to stare at. Averting my eyes from it was impossible.

Annoyances aside, I chose to pick a straight forward kick in order to deal with the wolf.

Taking 2 steps back, I took on deep breath and waited eagerly for the squishy sound when the wolf had landed on my previous location.

This moment seemed to last so much longer than every other bit of the fight beforehand. My entire body was full of tension as it waited for the sound in order to explode. At this moment in time, all my senses heightened as they waited and waited.

In the end, I did not even really hear the sound, as my body had moved forward on its own with the kick directly aimed at the wolf which ran towards me.

The result was a gnarly crunching sound, as my feet directly landed on the wolf. I did not expect the collision to have such a tremendous effect. A pained sensation ran through my entire right leg but I gritted my teeth and pushed myself forward.

It was time to act now. Hearing its aggressive growl I knew that things were far from over but I had no choice but go into melee to deal some considerable damage to it. I might have dealt some inner haemorrhage with my kick but I needed to injure it much more before it would die.

Judging by its growl it was slightly to my left, therefore, I decided to throw myself forward into its direction. The best way to avoid being bitten is to be in a position which it can not reach with its sharp teeth.

My attempt at flight ended with me directly landing at the wolfs back. Calling it aesthetically pleasing would be a stretch but my dive did its job. My next move was to equalize the playing field as both of my fingers desperately tried to reach its eyes.

What I had thought of as a well-coordinated manoeuvre had turned into me holding on for dear life as I tried to avoid getting thrown off by the rapid movement of the wolf. In my mind, all of this had been a lot easier, but when I finally managed to reach its eyes with my hand I felt elated.

The act of ramming my fingers repeatedly into its eye was way more satisfying, judging by the struggle I had to go through to reach this point. There was no need to mention, that the wolf had a different view on this subject.

But its view is irrelevant when I will have taken care of the remaining eye. After this is done I will tear apart its nose. Having 2 holes to grab onto make this part very easy for me, as I have something to hold onto.

It did not take long for the wolf to lose both its eyes and its had been disfigured by my fingers as I had rammed them over and over again into the wounds for good measure.

The next target was the ears, as I used my fingers to enter it in a very normal and civil manner. I did so several times to make sure, I had left it behind in a suitable state. My compliment to my adversary it had not given up despite all of my attention as it still struggled to throw me off.

This time I decided to treat the affected areas with much greater care, to show the wolf just how much I care about it. I admired, just how deep its hatred for me ran and wanted to witness it struggling until its very last breath.

Those emotions were very raw and clear, something I wanted to have for myself. I do not care if my behaviour seems crazy, I just want to see it for myself. At our core, we humans are still animals, so I might be able to draw some lessons out of this.

When everything is uncertain, I should find a way to make the best out of each moment I have full control of. I will not hold anything back, in order to kill this wolf, I am not some sort of superhuman. I can only win by being cruel.

Is it wrong for me to enjoy all of this? After all, I am hurting a living being and letting it endure some hellish pain, but strangely I did not feel like I should be concerned by it. I am not going out of my way to make it worse for this creature, I simply lack a different method to deal with it.

Prolonging the fight was also not something I am interested in, as it would only falsify the impression I am trying to witness. Risking my life any more than necessary, was useless and I very much like being alive.

This might be a new world, but I am still the same. I am very much the same.